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my 18month old wont sleep alone

He's really clingy especially to his dad. sometimes he screams and cries when we leave the room, he follows us everywhere and has ended up sleeping in our bed. sometimes i have to go sleep in the spare bed cos i'm 7 motnhs pregnant and there s no room.

His bed is all ready looking nice n cosy but he just wont go. his dad is not patient enough to go take him to bed. and our son definatly wont let me take him. even if hes fallen asleep downstairs his dad just puts him in our bed cos he'll wake up and cry knowing hes not in our bed. pleaseeeee help please

Replies

  • Hi hon, think you are going to have to try the "cruel to be kind" method and get him out of this.

    you lo knows if he kicks off he'll get his own way and get into your bed! My little boy is 18months too and everynight we put him down at 7 - 7.30pm and he always has a screaming match when we first leave the room but within 10minutes he's stopped and fast asleep.

    Have you always had sleeping problems? or is this more recent? My lo didn't sleep through till 9months and he only went through because we had 3 nights of controlled crying.

    Its not cruel to let lo cry, as long as he's safe (I presume you've taken him out of cot already as you said bed). let him have a scream for 5 minutes then go back in, lights low, and settle him back down, but not too much eye contact and no talking, then walk away again, then try and leave him a bit longer. I bet if you persevere with this for a few days you'll crack it.
    You also said he follows you everywhere, so try it during day too, walk out of room, hide round corner for a few minutes and let him get used to his own company for a few minutes.

    I hope this helps, and let me know how you got on xx
  • Can't believe it you have the identical situation to mine. My daughter is 18mths old and I'm 8mths pregnant and has always been in our bed. It started when I was breast feeding and though she has had brief spells of going in her crib she's ended up back with us. I have tried letting her cry and one night I stayed upstairs with her for nearly 3 hours of it but my hubby caved in and picked her up. To be fair to him though she was absolutely devasted, we also live in a terraced house and the walls are paperthin so we are also concerned about the neighbours.We've even tried putting her in after she's fallen to sleep but she wakes up a lot for a drink and then screams her head off when she is in the cot.
    we are trying something new this weekend. Recently I've been letting her play in her room so she's familiar with it so that if she does wake up in the middle of the night she won't be frightened. We' ve put a gate up outside her door and we are going to take the sides down on her cot and make it into a bed. Our thinking is that she is used to a bed so hopefully might take it to it better than a cot, plus whenever she's touched the sides before its woke her up. Other than this I am at a loss as to what else to do.
    Good luck to us both xxxx
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